LA People 2009: Financial Field-Leveler — Berdell Knowles

Comments (0) By Paul Teetor Wednesday, Apr 22 2009

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One typical solution in Knowles’ plan eliminates the high fees paid for international wire transfers.

“Instead of paying $50 to wire money to another country, if you have a banking account, you can have multiple debit cards so the wire fees go away, the check-cashing fees go away and you and your family members actually have access to all the capital you earned,” he says.

Orly Olivier

Berdell Knowles

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Another idea: using advanced technology to prevent first-time account holders from writing too many checks too quickly, a common mistake that quickly kills credit.

They can effectively have a progression into higher bankability,” he said. “Initially, banks used to be exposed to high-risk markets where customers could write checks to infinity, but now banks can manage consumers’ check-writing abilities and their debit-card capacity through technology so they can’t run into trouble.”

When he graduated from MIT a decade ago, Knowles admits, he took a job in L.A. with AT&T Solutions because he was excited about earning bigtime corporate money.

But after a few years, the lure of the money faded and he became a consultant working with companies receptive to his message of corporate responsibility.

“I have to admit that working within Wall Street and corporate America, it did come to seem like it was all about greed and the next dollar,” he says. “There was no real meaning in the work I was doing. No spiritual side at all.”

Now the spiritual side is a slam dunk. It’s the financial side that has taken a serious hit during his switch from corporate drone to corporate do-gooder. But, he insists, that’s fine with him.

“A lot of people had to sacrifice and open doors to help me get from Florida to MIT,” he says. “I don’t mind making a little sacrifice if it opens more doors for more people.”

Ball game.

Heh-heh-heh.

Click here for a complete list of L.A. People 2009.